Recall317 gets raked over the coals! (2)

Date: 12/19/2002
From: SL4ever

Eleven Questions [1] for Sliders Writers (Ep 2 starring Recall317)

Recall317 is a thoughtful, wellread fan fiction writer who might have the widest variety of interests of anyone on the board. Be it flame tournament hosting, talking about Hockey, political debates, laugh out loud funny episode roasts, Buffy commentary, Civilization III, deeper immersion in alt history than most people prefer to go ... Recall317 can be found all over the spectrum. He recently agreed to do an interview and here now are eleven questions for him to answer. No dodging the tough ones! (Your additional questions are invited)

1) How the hell are you?

2) Do you write directly into the post window or do you write several drafts into a word program before posting? Do you write an outline first?

3) Is there any story that you’d be embarrassed for one of the actors to read because of something that happens to their character?

4) What brought you back to the Story Game after a year’s hiatus? Which Story Game is your all time favorite? (Doesn’t have to be one you participated in)

5) Your “100 Things I Hate About ...” reviews never fail to leave me with tears of laughter. Have you ever had to struggle to reach 100? How many more eps do you hate a hundred things about? Also, is this the genesis of this series? ----> http://bboard.scifi.com/bboard/browse.cgi/1/5/2326/25022

6) Which Slider do you feel you write best? Worst?

7) Your credits for “The Show Must Go On” beg this question. What inside info did SouthernSlider and sliderlynn have about JOC???? While we’re on the subject, are there any other shows you’d consider crossing over with Sliders?

8) “The Thriller is Gone” is another great Remmy episode. Which TV season of Remmy did you enjoy the most? Which is the most fun to write? Also, how much Remmy backstory did you make up in this ep and how much did you glean from various TV eps?

9) I won’t ask “what is your favorite story” because to a writer that is akin to asking a mother “which child is your favorite?” Instead, which world that you’ve visited in your writings is your favorite?

10) Earth 8950 matches you up with equally well read and thoughtful Tigs. How did this partnership and E8950 itself come about? How much do you edit each other?

11) “Nobody Move” starts with a very chilling concept. My pet theory is that the entire story sprung from the idea of the Sliders emerging into the bloody aftermath of a botched bank robbery. Is this true? If not, have you ever built on entire story around a great scene or concept?

Vote for who you would most like to see interviewed next! Also, to anyone else reading this, are there any other questions you have for Recall317?

Bonus Question: Has this list changed any? http://bboard.scifi.com/bboard/browse.cgi/1/5/545/26457

“Finally, on November 19, 1982, the title track for Brown's fifth album "In The Blood" debuted.

It was a complete failure.”

[1] Since they are multipart questions, it works out to many more than 11.

Answers

Date: 12/19/2002
From: Recall317

"I'll take swords for $200, Alex."

"That's S-words!"

First off, I think widest variety of interests is often confused with brain that soaks up inane bits of info. But thanks anyway.

1) How the hell are you?

I go back on vacation as of tomorrow, so looking up.

2) Do you write directly into the post window or do you write several drafts into a word program before posting? Do you write an outline first?

For stories? I used to write them in notepads first. I still do for some pieces. Everything is eventually done in Word and usually goes through a ton of revisions before it hits Otherworlds. Except for the S3 parodies, which are lucky to get spell-checked.

3) Is there any story that you’d be embarrassed for one of the actors to read because of something that happens to their character?

All of Earths 10153 and 5260. Of course, that's sort of the point.

4) What brought you back to the Story Game after a year’s hiatus? Which Story Game is your all time favorite? (Doesn’t have to be one you participated in)

In all fairness, there was only like one story done during that hiatus. It's like I barely left. :)

There will be stakes and crosses taken out for this answer, but I had a lot of fun with the Transmodiar story. The Comment section alone was worth the price of admission.

5) Your “100 Things I Hate About ...” reviews never fail to leave me with tears of laughter. Have you ever had to struggle to reach 100? How many more eps do you hate a hundred things about? Also, is this the genesis of this series? ----> http://bboard.scifi.com/bboard/browse.cgi/1/5/2326/25022

I didn't make it in Revelations and refused to go back and look for more. It's more dreadfully dull than anything, so there were few details to screw up. The ones they did were doozies.

I bet I could get to 100 for the Breeder, Stoker, Slither, This Slide of Paradise, Roads Taken, Requiem, and an outside shot at Time Again and World. Trouble is, I don't hate those eps so much as that I'm bewildered they were ever made.

OK, I really hate Roads Taken.

As for that post, not really. Informant was doing an Opposites Day and I was writing "The Show Must Go On" at the time. The genesis of the series is the appendix for "Show", which explains why I did it--to pass the time.

6) Which Slider do you feel you write best? Worst?

I feel I write Arturo best. He's richly textured and fairly consistant throughout the series so there are plenty of guidelines to work within.

I struggle most with Wade. She's a different person from season to season. We tend to think of her as all sugar and spice, but she really isn't. She's the one who encourages Arturo to rob the Royal Colony Hotel in the first season, a far cry from the person worried about karma by the third season.

7) Your credits for “The Show Must Go On” beg this question. What inside info did SouthernSlider and sliderlynn have about JOC???? While we’re on the subject, are there any other shows you’d consider crossing over with Sliders?

They were able to confirm JOC's living arrangements at the time so I could make that as realistic as possible too. No other crossovers are planned.

8) “The Thriller is Gone” is another great Remmy episode. Which TV season of Remmy did you enjoy the most? Which is the most fun to write? Also, how much Remmy backstory did you make up in this ep and how much did you glean from various TV eps?

First season is the most fun. Second season is probably the best place to write as he still has traces of his first season personality without quite so much of the whining.

In "The Thriller is Gone", virtually 100% of the back story is fabricated as the Inside the Music special is the story of his double, whose life is very, very different from Remmy's. It's more a warped shadow of Michael Jackson than Rembrandt Brown. That said, TemporalFlux helped me reconstruct our Remmy's past just so I'd have a point of reference.

9) I won’t ask “what is your favorite story” because to a writer that is akin to asking a mother “which child is your favorite?” Instead, which world that you’ve visited in your writings is your favorite?

You haven't seen them yet, but they're written. :)

10) Earth 8950 matches you up with equally well read and thoughtful Tigs. How did this partnership and E8950 itself come about? How much do you edit each other?

Earth8950 (3005 at the time) is Chaser9's idea. It came about when the Otherworlds staff started brainstorming how to accomplish it. It never got off the ground because very few people had the time to dedicate to it. I was done with 317, so I decided I'd take a look and put together a plan. Tigs had volunteered to do "Beauty World" and then eventually was coerced into becoming a full partner in the project.

How do we edit each other? With great care.

11) “Nobody Move” starts with a very chilling concept. My pet theory is that the entire story sprung from the idea of the Sliders emerging into the bloody aftermath of a botched bank robbery. Is this true? If not, have you ever built on entire story around a great scene or concept?

This story was born out of the necessity to burn off an episode in between "Beauty World" and T4's 7th episode (which was scheduled 4th at the time) so that it could begin in October. We needed a 1-2 hour slide. Not so glorious is it now, eh?

The original idea was essentially this-- write an episode where Wing is a lawyer. I had two ideas and this is the actual proposal from June of 2001:

---
Option One- Variation of Earth214's "Negotiations"

The Sliders land right in the midst of a brutal shootout, probably a bank robbery gone awry. It looks like someone played hero and managed to kill the robber, but lost his life in the process. Bottom line: everyone is dead but the Sliders. And the building is surrounded by cops reporting to the scene. Try talking your way out of this one. The slide is in 1-2 hours, so if they are arrested, they might be separated. They decide the best plan of action is to
hold up in the bank. To do this, one of them must take on the role as villain and pretend to hold the other 3 hostage. It's a two set story- in the bank, outside the bank. It's a prototypical bottle episode good for characterization. Outside the bank is where the comedy takes place. There, ambulance chasing lawyers Ross J. Kelly and Trevor Wing compete to get the hostages to sign with them for damage claims. (Hey, Wing said in the pilot his father wanted him to be a lawyer, here he did.)

Option Two- Varation of ThomasMalthus' Suspicion

When TM started that story, I thought he was going to do a tale of a world where impersonating your double is a crime. In worlds accepting of the sliding technology, you'd have to expect such laws. I'd find it an interesting society to explore and one that sheds light on what might happen to EarthPrime if sliding went mainstream. Is this something they would want? And if it is not, it puts greater impetus on them to get home and prevent Quinn's experiment from getting out (unbeknownst to them that the FBI had already investigated.) Ross J. Kelly would defend the impersonating slider against ruthless Assistant District Attorney, Trevor Wing.
---

We went with Option One (with SQ21's permission), but Option Two still looks like a pretty good potential story. So anyway, more info than you ever wanted to know on "Nobody Move" and all still well-documented at the Otherworlds mailing list.

And have any stories been born of a single scene? Not quite, but T4's 9th episode is born out of all the rejected ideas for "The Thriller Is Gone" (and yet bears no resemblance to it!)

Bonus Question: Has this list changed any? http://bboard.scifi.com/bboard/browse.cgi/1/5/545/26457

I'd add Yee Jee Tso and Steve Stoliar, dropping Mothersbaugh and Damron.

R317

By the by...

Date: 12/20/2002
From: Slider_Sarah

Good answer!! :-)

Anywya... I looked at yout dinner thingamy which I may or may not have read at the time. Probably did. And you're right: JRD is a great conversationalist. But not if you want to ask him any questions :-) He does go on. I noticed this all that time ago now, but when reading Empire magazine this months, it's obvious he does it in his interviews as well!

I should really make more time to read. You are a great writer!

Sarah.
slider_sarah@hotmail.com
http://www.slidersweb.net/sarah/

Transmodiar LIVES?!

Date: 12/20/2002
From: SpaceTime

Besides in Blinker's dreams?

Seriously, what the hell? Point me to this. I gotta see what the hell my favorite God of Sliding is doing these days.

Hint: it BETTER involve a midget. And a jar of Lard™.

Peace,
Matt